


Children

by royaltyjunk



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Academy Era, Friendship, Gen, Slice of Life, and claude “i learned to play the flute for memes” von riegan, dimitri “BET” blaiddyd, featuring edelgard “why are you both so dumb” von hresvelg
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-21
Updated: 2019-08-21
Packaged: 2020-09-23 10:13:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,954
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20338444
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/royaltyjunk/pseuds/royaltyjunk
Summary: Or, they get to be the children they always wanted to be.





	Children

**Author's Note:**

> Author’s Ideas: Written for FE Gen Week 2019. I absolutely procrastinated on this I’m sorry for this opposite-of-quality content  
The themes for Day Four were music/tempest

Claude smiled as he threw open the doors to the training grounds to find Edelgard and Dimitri sparring. Of course. Nowadays, it seemed like that was all they did. He hid his flute behind his back as he approached.

Edelgard brought her axe over her head, but Dimitri raised his lance and blocked her cleave. With a twist of his hands, he wrenched Edelgard’s axe from her hands with his lance and threw their weapons aside. Edelgard raised her fists and Dimitri gave her a coy smile before he jabbed at her, striking her shoulder before withdrawing his hand quickly; she stumbled back slightly before lunging forward.

“Woah, woah! You’re going to hurt yourselves!” Dimitri and Edelgard started and stopped, glancing over at him. “Settle down, both you!”

Dimitri frowned. “We’re just training.” He ducked as Edelgard swung again at him, and then wheezed when her other hand nailed him in the chest and knocked him onto his back.

“What did I tell you?” Claude sighed. Edelgard flicked a lock of hair over her shoulder and let out a breath.

“I win this time,” Edelgard said. Dimitri grunted.

“I was distracted.”

“You’re making excuses.”

“I am not—”

Claude raised his flute to his lips and blew out a high trill (goddess help him if he had to deal with another argument). Edelgard and Dimitri both stared at him.

“...You can play the flute?” Dimitri questioned.

“What, your parents never made you learn to play an instrument?” Claude asked. Both of them shook their heads, and he huffed indignantly as he sat down beside Dimitri. “Man, you guys are lucky.”

“On the contrary,” Dimitri disagreed, rubbing a strand of hair between his fingers. “I wish my parents had made me learn an instrument. Being able to play one seems very entertaining.”

“Why did you bring that to the training ground?” Edelgard questioned. Claude played a few trills on the flute, grinning. Of course Edelgard had noticed.

“Well, it _is_ the Harpstring Moon,” he started, “so… who wants to sing along? Come on, don’t be shy.”

“Well, what can you play?”

“Let’s see… ‘Ballad of the Crescent Moon War’ is always a classic, but if you wanted we could do ‘The Victorious Lion’ or ‘Eagle and Lion’’.”

At that, Edelgard laughed and sat in front of them. The sound made Dimitri smile and Claude stare at her in awe.

“The opera house in Enbarr developed a much more interesting version of ‘Eagle and Lion’ some years ago. Perhaps I should sing it for you two to hear. I have no doubt you will enjoy it.”

“Please do,” Dimitri said, smiling in encouragement. Edelgard cleared her throat and began to sing, letting Claude follow her rhythm with accompanying notes.

The first line had Dimitri hiding his snickering behind his hand, and they didn’t even get a quarter of the way through the song before Claude couldn’t contain his laughter and burst out into a fit of giggles and off-tune notes, and then insisting they all learn the song. Edelgard agreed after making them both promise that, if someone overhead, they would all pin the blame on someone else.

(Thankfully for Hubert, they were not caught, although the next day some complained of strange dreams where three voices sang endlessly about how the emperor at the time had broken Loog’s nose and that was why the Holy Kingdom of Faerghus was formed.)

~ / . / . / ~

“Edelgard!” Claude's voice sounded.

She turned at the call of her name, frowning when she saw two shadowy figures running through the downpour towards her. She descended the stairs she had been ascending, stopping in front of the first floor dormitories.

“Dimitri? Claude?” she asked hesitantly. “What are you doing out this late? And in this rain, no less.”

The two clambered up the stairs and under the cover of the first floor dormitories, and Edelgard looked them both over before clicking her tongue. They were drenched from head to toe, uniforms and capes clinging to their forms.

“We were in our classrooms doing classwork, and _someone_ decided to drag me outside and dance in the rain,” Dimitri explained, side-eyeing Claude before shaking his head like a dog shaking out its fur. Edelgard stepped back as he exclaimed, “This rain is unlike anything I have ever seen!”

“Don’t do that,” she chided. Claude snorted, running a hand through his hair and wiping it on his already-wet uniform. He frowned as he pulled his hand away.

“Well, that didn’t help,” he commented. Edelgard sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. Of course Claude was no better. She understood that they had grown up in different countries, but did that really mean they had no clue what to do when it came to being caught in a storm?

“Don’t wipe your hand on your clothes when they’re wet. And, while you are at it, don’t wear your clothes when they’re wet. Go upstairs and change.”

“But—”

“_Now_, Claude,” Edelgard chided, “you as well, Dimitri. Otherwise you’ll catch a cold.”

“Yes, Edelgard.”

“And be sure to dry your hair as well. If you do not, you will be prone to headaches late at night. Alongside that—”

“Does the list end?” Claude questioned sarcastically.

“Yes, if you would let me finish,” she snapped back, glaring at him. “This is for your health, Claude. Be sure to squeeze the water from your clothes, and do not leave them outside to dry. Keep them on a cloth until the rain comes to a stop. If you hang them outside to dry right now, they will never get dry due to humidity. The rain may let up sometime tomorrow afternoon, so I would suggest tomorrow night.”

Dimitri pulled a sopping lock of hair off his forehead, blowing upwards on it before sighing and nodding.

“Lots of storms in the Adrestian Empire, huh?” Claude inquired, a knowing look in his eyes.

“Unfortunately, yes,” she answered before turning. “Come now. No more dawdling. I will stop by your rooms later to make sure you are doing everything correctly.”

“Thanks,” Claude murmured, following after her as she climbed up the stairs.

“Thank you,” Dimitri said when she folded his slightly-less-sopping wet uniform into a neat square and laid it upon a cloth she lent him. She glanced up at him and shook her head, her exasperation from earlier returning.

“I cannot believe you both decided to dance in the rain of all things. And during the Verdant Rain Moon, no less. It’s called that for a reason. Don’t do that again, alright?” She couldn’t help but feel worried for him—at some point in time, she was sure his lack of self-care would lead to something disastrous.

“Yes, Edelgard,” he replied, smiling. She couldn’t help but spare him a slight smile before leaving. She still had Claude to check on, after all.

~ / . / . / ~

The orchestral music of the ball faded, and Dimitri couldn’t help but let out a sigh as Archbishop Rhea smiled and officially dismissed them from the dance. Not that he hadn’t enjoyed the event, but being pulled for dances by everyone for hours on end was surprisingly exhausting.

There was an excited yell that snapped Dimitri out of his thoughts. He glanced up to see Ingrid and Anette waving furiously at him.

“It’s snowing!” Annette called excitedly. Ingrid, upon seeing Dimitri had heard, immediately turned and left the entrance hall. Dimitri craned his head, excitement filling his heart when he saw that, true to Annette’s words, little flecks of white were floating down and piling up on the unsheltered ground outside. It must have started after he’d stepped outside for a breath; the snow was sparse but there was barely any need to try, as there was enough for him to form snowballs easily.

And so he did exactly that, packing two snowballs with absolute precision behind one of the pillars; he couldn’t help but grin triumphantly when he saw Edelgard and Claude walking out side by side, the excitement from the dance clearly having not worn off for both of them.

“Snowball fight!” He declared loudly, jumping out and throwing one of his snowballs squarely at Claude’s face.

Claude yelped and jumped off to the side, rolling into the snow. Edelgard whipped her head around and spotted Dimitri. He threw his other snowball and she jumped away from Claude, scooping up snow. Dimitri laughed and ducked as Claude hurtled a handful of snow at him.

“Learn to pack a snowball!” he yelled, amused by the indignation on Claude’s face.

“Perhaps you should stop making a habit of ambushing people!” Edelgard responded, and dropped down as he threw another snowball at her.

“Surrender now and I’ll spare you!” he demanded.

“I’ll never surrender!” Claude replied.

“Then stand down!” Dimitri yelled before he was tackled to the ground from behind by Edelgard, keeping him shoved against the ground with her foot in the middle of his back as she rose to her feet.

“Aw, yeah!” Claude cheered, but Edelgard flung her hand out and nailed him in the face with a snowball. Dimitri couldn’t help but laugh, amused.

“Your celebration was a bit premature,” he called out before twisting his arm to grab Edelgard’s foot and shove it violently. She yelped as she stumbled back, and he took the opportunity to scramble to his feet as he flung a handful of snow at her, grinning widely. For the first time in a while, his heart pounded with adrenaline and joy. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d been allowed to have a snowball fight.

(They did have to take a break halfway through to teach Claude how to properly pack a snowball, but it was worth it if it meant not having to watch Claude press futilely at snow and despairingly yell “Why isn’t this working!?”.)

“Do you surrender?”

“I surrender! Please, no more snow to the face!” Claude pleaded. Dimitri grinned and, for good measure, threw the snow in his hand at Edelgard. She simply combed it out of her hair and frowned at him.

“I surrendered already. What was that for?”

“To prove that I won this time.”

“Wow, who could have guessed the prince from Faerghus won the snowball fight?” Claude asked sarcastically, glaring up at Dimitri from where he was sitting on the ground. Edelgard tried to hold back her laugh, but couldn’t.

“Edelgard!” Dimitri frowned.

“It’s true,” she said, laughing. “Who else would have won?”

“You both did rather well. Especially you, Claude, this being your first time even touching snow.”

“I mean, snow is just frozen water, and Derdriu _is_ called the Aquatic—” Claude gasped, cutting himself off. “I just realized! A snowstorm is just a rainstorm, except really cold!”

Edelgard took in a deep breath and then let out an exasperated sigh. Dimitri looked over at Claude with unimpressed eyes before glancing above Claude’s bent head, in the midst of a laughing fit, and meeting Edelgard’s gaze.

She didn’t even say a single word, just barreled Claude over and left him dazed, allowing Dimitri to drop another handful of snow onto Claude’s face.

“Mercy! Mercy!” he yelled, holding up his hands in surrender.

Of course, none of them really surrendered. He was told by Claude once they’d both woken up that Byleth found them that morning, wrapped up in Dimitri’s big fluffy winter coat and slumbering peacefully under a tree in the courtyard. He just smiled, and helped Claude wake Edelgard up by screaming the version of ‘Eagle and Lion’ that she’d taught in her ears.

They had their duties to attend to. Their world would change soon. But with each other, who could they be but the childish, musically talented storms they had always wanted to be?


End file.
